Source: European Parliament
All contracting authorities and contracting entities in the EU must respect the national rules transposing the EU Public Procurement directives[1].
These directives ensure that public procurement is opened up to competition and public funds are used efficiently. Member States are obliged to ensure application of the provisions transposing t hese directives to all public contracts and concessions the value of which is estimated to be not less than certain thresholds[2].
As specified in Directive 2014/24/EU[3], the procurement shall not be subdivided with the effect of preventing it from falling within the scope of this directive, unless justified by objective reasons.
National courts are usually in the best position to assess whether contracting authorities and contracting entities respect their obligations under EU law.
The transposition of the directives on remedies in public procurement[4] provides economic operators with rapid review procedures to challenge award procedures that they deem to be in breach of EU law, in the case at stake, before the Administrative Tribunal on Public Procurement of the Autonomous Community of Galicia[5].
Based on the information provided by the Honourable Member, the Commission cannot determine if these public procurement activities received EU funds.
For EU funds under shared management , the Member States shall ensure that expenditure submitted to the Commission is legal and regular and prevent, detect, correct and report on possible irregularities.
The Commission will raise the issue with the Spanish authorities and, should it identify a breach of EU law or a serious deficiency in a programme’s management and control system, it may interrupt or suspend the payment deadlines, and cancel the EU contribution.
- [1] Directive 2014/23/EU : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32014L0023, Directive 2014/24/EU : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32014L0024, and Directive 2014/25/EU : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32014L0025
- [2] For concessions covered by Directive 2014/23/EU, the threshold is EUR 5 538 000. For public contracts covered by Directive 2014/24/EU and awarded by sub-central contracting authorities, the thresholds are EUR 5 538 000 for works contracts, EUR 750 000 for service contracts for social and some specific services and EUR 221 000 for all other service contracts and for all supplies contracts. For public contracts covered by Directive 2014/25/EU, the thresholds range from EUR 443 000 to EUR 5 538 000.
- [3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32014L0024
- [4] Directive 89/665/EEC : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:01989L0665-20140417, and Directive 92/13/EEC: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:31992L0013
- [5] https://tacgal.xunta.gal/index_es.html